Judges (from left) Clark Hopton, Jonathan So and Jeff Boda taste some of the home-brewed ales on offer at The Globe. Photo: Edward Wong

Homer Simpson calls it "the cause and solution to all of life's problems" - and beer was all that mattered at Hong Kong's first home-brewing competition yesterday.

Ale enthusiasts enjoyed a selection of highly-original tipples as The Globe bar in Central played host to the city's top home-brewers.

The event was open to anyone who had brewed beer here since November. Twenty contestants took part - 20 entered beers and one a cider - and samples of each brew were on hand for the public to judge and taste after the judges had made their final decision.

Overall winner was Rohit Dugar who has been creating his own home brew for only two-and-a-half years.

"Obviously, I love drinking beer but I fell in love with the whole beer-making process too," Dugar, 33, said. "It's all about experimenting with different flavours and being creative."

The investment banker from Mid-Levels felt that whether a beer was good or bad was very subjective. "What one person may like, another may think is awful. It can be very personal too. I entered another beer in the competition and no one liked it at all. But my wife loves it," he said.

German home-brewer Christoph Schneider, originally from Hamburg, now lives in Kowloon Tong and is an assistant professor at City University. He could not have agreed more with Dugar's philosophy.

"Not everyone has to like your beer, but you have to try to be different," he said.

Beer-lovers were out in force in T-shirts with slogans such as "The Beer Necessities", "Make Beer, Not War", and "Bad Beer Is The Enemy - Just Ask Your Brother, Counsellor Or Best Friend."

Home-brewing was made legal in Hong Kong in 2000, although all bottles must be labelled: "Not for sale".

This article appeared in the South China Morning Post print edition as Judges home in on city's most tasty original brews